At this moment, what is your favorite...

1. ...song? Not my favorite, but "Material Girl" by Madonna is stuck in my head...

2. ...food? My husband got a huge box of Wolferman's English Muffins in the mail for his birthday from my parents yesterday and we've been devouring them like crazy.

3. ...tv show? I'd have to say The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is holding my attention more than anything else right now. Of course with everything that's going on, it's hard not to watch.

4. ...scent? Origins Lavender Vanilla bath stuff

5. ...quote? Speaking of politics, I'm stuck on a quote by Benjamin Franklin. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Addendum - 2/5: OK, I just said I love Jon Stewart's show. What I want to know is - What did Houston do to piss him off? I was watching Monday night and he's talking about the Superbowl, thankfully over now but great game, and he said, not once, but twice, that now Houston will go from being the center of the universe back to the shithole it is. Did he have a bad trip I'm wondering? We're not a particularly scenic town, but actually a pretty nice place to live. Did a redneck throw a beer bottle at him during an early stand-up tour? I'm really curious. I'll still watch his show, though, it's my favorite fake news program ;-)

Been a weird week. It started out with Sparky bitching at me about "what can I do about my hair??" (it's sort of thin and very dark, not a good combination). I told him screw Rogaine (I tried it years ago, no dice and icky), what I really needed was a first rate cut and a professional color job with lowlights to make it look fuller. He agreed so off I went to a salon I found on the internet that sounded nice and is in a nice neighborhood near my house with his Mastercard. (It's Pope Hair for the search engines, link above ;-)

I've never had high expectations for my hair, it's always been long, fine, wavy, frizzy and I've had pretty much the same long style since I was a teen. But I looked through lots of hairstyle pics online, played with a virtual style try on website and tried to get some realistic ideas for styles my hair might actually be able to do. I'm a very low maintenance gal, don't like a lot of junk in my hair, but I've started using some styling gel, etc. in the last couple of months out of desperation because I've been really dissatisfied with it. I haven't gotten a professional cut in years, partly because it seems whenever I do my hair always looks pretty much the same or they want to make it all curly. Long story short, the stylist was fabulous, listened to my ideas, toned down my too black hair, gave me lowlights and a much shorter style that actually looks like something. And the owner suggested I try some Nioxin vitamins to strengthen my hair and nails. Nice low key, low pressure salon, with great stylists and tons of stuff to buy, so I'm going to try and be a good girl and go back every few months.

When I walked out the door, though, it started raining. Rained all day today too. Being January, which I call the death month, within 24 hours two people close to us have died. This morning my husband wakes me up to tell me my dad just called and my mother's brother died suddenly the day before. He'd had heart conditions for most of his life and several surgeries, but they were just in town last weekend visiting my parents and my uncle spent most of his time worrying about my dad's health, which has been haphazard lately. My aunt and uncle live in the Texas Hill Country, which is hours and hours away from here, so my parents spent the day debating how and if they would be able to go to the funeral. I even offered to drive, but my mom finally decided my dad would not be able to make it by plane or by car and she didn't want to leave him alone overnight so at this time none of us are going.

Also later this evening, one of our good friends called us to say his mom had finally passed away today. Poor thing, she'd been lingering for a long time, and the past week he and his siblings had been keeping constant watch over her. so we kind of knew it was coming. We had planned to attend her funeral, then thought we'd be out of town, and now it seems we're not going anywhere so we will be able to make it.

But I'm exhausted now and I need to go wash my hair for the "first time" and I'm hoping it bounces back to some semblance of the style she gave it. I bought the mousse she used and even a texturizer for my bangs, but I think tonight I'm just going to use the organic shampoo & conditioner I got (which should prolong the new color) and see how it looks. With all this rain, it's just going to frizz anyway, and it appears the furthest I'll be going from the house all weekend is to the grocery store.

1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails? I don't use one anymore, but if I did it would be "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven't graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be? Nah, I didn't do that stuff...

3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say? I actually had two cars with vanity plates back in the 80's. My first car, a '79 Camaro had my last name on it (maiden) because it was very unusual, but I'd never do that again. I ordered vanity plates for a green 1973 Corvette I owned, but my idiot ex husband totalled the car (note the word ex) before I could get them on the car. They said "ban-she" (i.e. Banshee, we're only allowed 6 letters in Texas). I still have the plates, wish I still had the car :-(

4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say? Not really, just a plaque from my best friend in high school that has a rose and something about Capricorns I believe, I've still got it also.

5. What would you like your epitaph to be? "She saved the world... a lot". No, just kidding, I'm not Buffy ;-) Probably "She lived her life with integrity". Speaking of epitaphs, read the messages following this one...

It was last Saturday but I've been so swamped...

Sparky got me a new purse and my family got me my favorite gift (money :-)

I think I'll do last week's Friday Five in retrospect for January 2nd, it would make sense...

What one thing are you most looking forward to . . .

1. ...today? Well, on 1/2 we went out to eat with a good friend and had fabulous fajitas.

2. ...over the next week? The next several days we went out and ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant the night of my birthday. And on Sunday we had brunch at a ritzy place to celebrate mine & my mother-in-law's birthday. Monday I got my new printer. Hopefully by Friday I'll have my new "real" glasses and can see halfway decent again. I bought two pairs from Sam's (not bad, about $300 for both pairs), one for driving and one for reading, and got them both with the glare-free coating so I'm very hyped. I had RK surgery years ago and glare is a huge problem now.

3. ...this year? Hopefully making my eBay stores self-sufficient so I won't be dependant on selling things for other people. I do both now, but it would be nice not to have to split my sales with anyone...

4. ...over the next five years? Pretty much the same thing, also improving my health, hopefully getting a new car.

5. ...for the rest of your life? Would like to never have to go back to a 9-5 job and someday just be able to do whatever I wanted (i.e., be lazy and be able to read and have fun instead of working 24/7).

Also had to renew my driver's license on 1/2, got the vision restriction put back on because I couldn't read their tiny little glary machine :-( Oh well, I've had a good 13 or 14 years without it.